Defending Champion Team Penske swept the stakes last season when Joey Logano lifted the trophy and Ryan Blaney finished in the Top 10. Touted as the best-performing Ford team, owner Roger Penske started the year with his head held high. But as the season progressed, the aspirations for successive wins dwindled.

With Logano eliminated in the first round of the playoffs and Blaney struggling in the second, the 86-year-old billionaire’s team is drenched in a quagmire of inconsistent performances.

Joey Logano welcomes fan anger toward Roger Penske’s team

There was a time when the floors of Penske’s station adorned luminaries like Bobby Allison, Rusty Wallace, and Kurt Busch. In the past decade, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano have taken the team’s reputation to soaring heights. Logano, in fact, devoted most of his career to the service of this team. Two out of Roger Penske’s three owner’s championships were bestowed by Logano. In these circumstances, Logano would expect unwavering support regarding strategy, crew, and equipment.

However, Logano’s #22 Ford Mustang tells a different story. The car’s sole win came at the 1.5-mile speedway in Atlanta. On the other hand, the #22 could not finish a disappointing five times in Las Vegas, Dover, Ponoco, and both Bristol races. When SiriusXM’s daughter got up with him to convey the fan’s rage, it did not surprise the Penske racer. Logano expressed his own discontentment with his team’s performance this season, suggesting internal discord.

He responded, “The fact that there is frustration does not bother me. That’s a good thing! I’m glad people are pissed off about it. I’m angry, really angry about it! And that’s a good thing. There is nothing wrong with being mad about not being good. That’s a good thing that you’re mad about it.” 

At the same time, Logano cautioned his fanbase toward taking a constructive approach to it. He continued, “You got to be a team. You have to work together, and you have to be honest with each other. No matter who it is. Let’s talk it out and look at every little piece there is to try to get better”.

Watch this story: Joey Logano Rejects Netflix’s Offer to Film His Personal Life for NASCAR Series

After all, the veteran racer had sailed stormier waters, only to receive thunderous applause at the shore.

Two-time Cup Series champion refuses to give up without a fight

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The 33-year-old racer’s career was poignantly summarized by the interviewer’s comment, “Through adversity comes strength”. At 18, the youngest driver to start at the Daytona 500 also became the youngest Cup race winner in New Hampshire at 19. A few mediocre years with Joe Gibbs Racing led to the biggest career decision of his life, and Joey Logano joined hands with Roger Penske.

Having won 25 races before the age of 30, the #22 driver has added seven more wins to his tally since then. But like the champion driver pointed out, Logona and the team have been through rough patches earlier. Apart from his two season wins, Logano qualified for the playoffs multiple times and landed in the Champion 4 race in 2016 and 2020.

Unfortunately, this year he became the only defending champion to get eliminated in the Round of 16. But there was another season that Logano would prefer to strike out of his resume. After several mishaps, 2017 became the only year Joey Logano did not qualify for the playoffs after his alliance with Team Penske. But he learned from his failure and won his first championship in 2018.

Logano reiterated that on his parting note. He said, “It’s hard but we’ve all been here before too right? That’s the other piece that I think helps us a little bit along here is that we’ve been in the trenches before. We’ve been down here before and we’ve dug out. And we’ve become stronger because of it.”

“So here we are, we’ll fight through it again. It’s not the same issue we fought before because it’s a whole new car. But we’ll fight through it, we’ll figure it out and we’ll be stronger because of it.”

Ousted Joey Logano Sends 3-Word Message to NASCAR as Champion-Turned-Underdog Succumbs to Cup Giants

Thankfully for Roger Penske, his #12 driver, Ryan Blaney, would continue his playoff fight in the next race at Talladega Superspeedway. And Team Penske’s fans could draw some comfort from their star driver’s words and hope for a comeback next year.